Final school visit – Melbourne Rudolf Steiner School

This is the final school visit and a school that is somehow far away from the city centre. The school had a lot of space in the campus and the school initiated the joy and pleasure of schooling to young children to adults.

We have been to the primary section and we have been to an art studio to look at the students’ masterpiece. The school had used a combination of art and other subjects such as maths, bible studies, social studies, etc. to integrate with the studies. It is something interesting and something new as I have never been approached to anything like this before. Indeed, the school explained that Arts (drawing) is a serious course and they take this very seriously. This is because the school usually get good scores in VCE and internally.

There is another thing that I enjoyed most. The school provide students how to make things with their bare hands in order to make a living. Things include building bricks, making swords, building houses and farming in the gardens to make a living. We never have that in Hong Kong as all of these things would never been in the curricular.

If I were the parent, I would send my children to this school regardless of how prestigious the school is. This is because I would like my children to learn things that were never learnt before and the school could provide something that my children could make a living or at the very least, making ends meet.

Ninth Observsation - Fitzroy High School

This school is very different in terms of classroom atmosphere. There are no fixed tables and there is random seating almost in every classroom. The teachers are very close with the students.

This school is also considered as a 'new school'. It was closed and reopened in 2004. The school was redesigned again and implied new elements so that most of the things were similar to the primary section. This, they say, is very important as students will have a better transiction from primary to secondary. There are some things that were brought from primary to secondary such as class teachers teaching most of the subjects and having a relatively smaller class so that students could have a deeper learning environment.

I went to a Year 11 Arts Studio class. The class was preparing for their VCE and the students have to finish their own artwork so that some of therm could be sold in auction. In the class, there were 2 teaching assistants and 11 students. Some of them have not start on their final project and only a minority of the students are on the verge on completing their masterpiece. From what I have seen from the class, the teacher and student relationship is very deep as there are not a lot of arguments. The teacher did not even teach the students the skills and the techniques. The teacher rather asks students to go and draw whatever thy like. It is completely different back home as we were taught how to draw - only by the technique and give themes for students to draw. In Australia, the teacher would rather give the students a free hand and it is the students who develop their own feelings and personal development. The students could also express their views and their opinions through drawing so that people could understand that the 'artist' are doing. The teacher would also give opinions, feedbacks and checking the students progress. That is another thing that stands out comparing to Hong Kong.

There are some students that was far behind their own schedule. The teacher would give on-the-spot orders so that the students could meet the deadline. There are also students that would require advanced skills and the teacher would help them to the fullest. That could make the student very comfortable and it seems more like a friend talking to the students rather being a teacher and student.

To conclude, this school gave absolute freedom to students to develop and grow to a responsible citizens. The school is willing to try out new things and I could say that they are adventurous and ambitious. Even though we as Hong Kong students might not be able to cope with a school with no or limited rules, I do believe that the students at the school are able to control and with the guidance from the teachers, they would really, really feel like a second home and a fun school to go to.

Eighth Observation - La Trobe Univerity - International College

The school that we visited on that day was the LTU International College. The class that I went to was 3B - an average English class with 15 students. In addition, the students first language are not English and they are together in the class to learn English so that they could go to the main campus - La Trobe University within a short period of time. To me, the students' level of language are average with some usage of code mixing among fellow countrymen. There are also a vast variety of culture experiences. Despite all of those things, the teacher was very patient when teaching a lesson.

The lesson began with grammar revision in the first hour. The students were learning active and passive voice. The teacher went over the answers with the students as they should have finished their activity at home at the previous day. It went well with not a lot of questions. The teacher also went through a series of drills on the grammar to make sure that students are familiarize with the grammar as well. The teacher used repetition exercises as this would not make students bored with learning grammar. The teacher also let students play a game on active and passive. It is also a good way for students to understand the two clauses in a fun way.

In the second hour, the teacher asked students to form themselves into groups of four and they were to discuss about the newspaper cutting. It started brightly for the students but somehow, what a lot of time remaining, the students that I had in my group ended up out of ideas. I therefore guided them to think of things outside the newspaper cutting. The teacher asked the students to take note of what they haven learnt and attempt any new words that could be useful to them so that the students could use the phrases given in the future. It maybe useful in a way. At the present moment, however, it did not work as students in the class also need to learn how to use stress and intonation in order to make the phrase of the sentence speak more smoothly and fluently.

To conclude, I think this school is completely different to other schools as the target audience are mostly adults studying at the International College.The students want to learn more English and then get into university and I could say that the teacher is fulfilling their needs as I think the intonation, stress and speaking ability are lacking. Finally, it was a great pleasure to observe this class as the students and we as teachers-to-be are more or less the same age.

Seventh Observation - Defence International Training Centre: Laverton Base

This observation is focused on adults and these people are there for their teaching training. A note in advance, this place is a military base and it does not allow any photography unless permitted to do so. The 'students' are those military soldiers that were sent from their respective countries (South East Asia and Pacific) to Australia along with the funding from the government. They were here for the next six months and they will be thought about the metalanguage and the methodology on teaching military students back home.

In the base, the militarily-to-be-teachers were seated in a circle. There were no straight rows or lines from what we saw from movies. They were more expressive rather than being vivid. The class started off brightly as we were to introduce ourselves to the soldiers. Very surprisingly, they were not very strict and they told us a lot about their stuffs. We also have the opportunity to know the soldiers background and why they would like to be teachers to teach military students back home. The teaching of that lesson was in an intermediary level (vocabulary) for teachers. I have taught vocabulary to students before but this was the first time that I have received that sort of training. The lesson then followed the methodology of teaching. I would have no comments towards the teacher on her way of teaching. To the in-service teachers (soldiers), the two from my group did not enjoy /like what she was doing as they told me that the method that she was teaching would never happen in their classrooms back home. In a normal classroom, the students would not follow the teachers method and the two of them suggested that they would do it their own way in the class.

To conclude, I think it is interesting to see a military base where military personnel, mostly from South East Asia come to a place and had their training to become teachers. The teachers methods to students could not be commented however I think there are some students (military personnel teachers) do have an opinion but are unable to say it out. This is because they think that the teacher is too one-sided, too teacher-oriented. As what I have heard, the teacher does all the talking and the students do not have the chance to speak due to the different cultures at their respective countries. I think it is best to have a resolution or clean-the-air talks with their teacher so that the teacher could understand the students' situation back home.

Sixth Observation - Glen Eira College

The sixth school that we visited was Glen Eira English Language Centre. Like Blackburn, this school does provide new immigrants the change to brush their English Language for 20 weeks and then sent to mainstream secondary schools. In contrast, the school provides students to have the experience of what a typical Australian school is before going to a mainstream school. Facilities such as a large playground was included and a chance to study at the school after the 20 weeks of ‘training’. In addition, the school does provide students that are overage to go to a TAFE course upon the 20 weeks completion. The school also provides international secondary school students from other languages to take the English course at the school.

In class, the students were set into small class sizes and studies of different subjects were taught in order to widen their knowledge of Australian contexts. The teachers told us that they have to prepare their own materials and implemented free teaching as long as they are up the Victorian Education Learning Standard (VELS). Teachers in the college would give students more time to think about on what they are doing rather than giving those tasks that could be a serious challenge. Code switching could be used depending on situations. The teacher told us that they do encounter some culture issues and gender issues. There are also at times that the boys and girls could simply not work together and things were not going to their plan but they had to face the fact, hoping that the situation could change when time carries on.

There is one thing that is interesting that is that students at the school do not need to have any exams to get into the desirable school. All they need to do is to work hard and hopefully, be accepted into their desirable school. There is also a rule that schools are not allowed to decline any student under 18, in which their area of location of residency is closest to the specific school.

To conclude, I have seen two classes during the time there. The first one was useful as there are some challenges faced by the teacher and how she prepared the materials for her students taking Social studies. The second class was more or less similar to the ones at Blackburn and I think it would have been better if they had shown some speciality/strongest courses for us to observe.

Fifth Observation - Blackburn English Language Centre

The fifth school is, by all means, acts as an intermediary to handle students before they go to their primary or secondary schools. It can be said that the school handles screening and helps students to brush/develop their English Language so that they could get to the mainstream schools and Australian education system. The students in the school undergo a 20-week program to understand the English system and then sent to schools by random distribution. The students do not have a specific class according to age but they are classified by their language skills.

I have observed two classes. The first one was a Computer lesson with English contexts. The teacher told the students to look at the website 'Behind the News' from the ABC website. It did take the students some time to finish the job and answer the questions. The lesson took almost one lesson (40 minutes) to finish the whole process (worksheet, watching, and reading). The teacher did give some useful information on casual English language and told the students to look out for casual English used in 'Behind the News'.

The second one was rather a straightforward class - Maths in the Secondary section. By coincidence, they were having a Maths test therefore; I do not have the opportunity to observe much from it.

I have to be frank to say that I did not enjoy this comparing to the previous observations, as there is nothing special from it. Other than using ‘Behind the News’ from the ABC, there is basically nothing else that I could take something away from it. All I can say that the teaching was pretty average despite them being very approachable as well as showing their enthusiasm in teaching new immigrants on English Language in all subjects. They do have a mission to cater students needs in order that they would reach the mainstream schools after the second term.

Fourth Observation - Macleod College 7/6/10

The school that we sent to is a fifteen-minute drive near to Macleod station. Macleod College is a school, which does provide education from early years up to the end of secondary. The college is not the best nor is the worst in reputation but the college widely respected in the vast range of co-curricular activities and learning English as a secondary language from Primary to Secondary.

I will discuss mostly on the secondary section. The surprising thing from the school is that the classroom is an open class and the school had implemented the ‘breaking down the walls’ system. They also have teachers who have to teach from Primary to Secondary. It is a very unusual issue as most teachers usually take students by either level-wise or from the subject they are specializing in. It seems to me that the teacher also used the widening of space so that students will feel comfortable when they are in class. I also felt that the spacing of the learning space is a good thing as well as something new because it is impossible to see something like this back home and indeed, the teachers could merge the class; say for example, three classes in the same level could merge into one if the teacher co-operate on one particular material. This does shows the flexibility of the classes both from the teachers and from the students.

The surprising thing is that I do like the visibility of the classroom because the school provide every class and every staff room as visible as possible so that students and staffs could develop at a higher level. Teachers desks are also widen so that students could stand around the teachers’ desk. There are some drawbacks. With the breaking of the walls, classroom will become much noisier and there will be many children that will be looking around in every direction. That could mean that students' concentration could be be focused in every class. There is a possibility that teachers do not like the method of how the school operates with the breaking of the walls system implemented. Teachers are mostly part-time rather than full-time as teachers are going on shifts on a certain number of days. In order to satisfy that, timetable on lessons have to be carefully planned and this might dampen the students development with the teacher teaching only a number of days and a reserve teacher taking over. That could show the inconsistency.

To conclude, I think the school is very ambitious in many things in order to break the barrier between teachers and students but I believe that the school is looking on the long term basis rather than a short term results.

The connection of two classes into one big classroom

The visible staffroom