EDPRAC 612 · Practicum 2 · Handbook §4.1
Practicum File
The ten items the handbook requires in the Practicum File, assembled in the handbook's order so that my professional supervisor and associate teachers can view the file without waiting for a visit. Where an item exists only on paper — class lists, signed sheets, school documents — it says so, and the paper copy is in the hard-copy folder that travels with me. Colleagues appear by role. No student is identifiable anywhere on this page.
Class descriptions, special features, organisation
In fileEight-week Practicum 2 at Fraser High School, a co-educational state secondary school (Years 9–13) in Dinsdale, Hamilton. My placement dates are taken from my school timetable, not the handbook's generic Practicum 2 window. Week 2 (10–14 August) was a full week absent through illness, reported under the programme's leave provisions.
Classes taught — current, from 27 August
| Class | Level and subject | Room | Approx. roll | Associate teacher | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9SST | Year 9 Social Studies | D2 | ~28 | Supporting AT (Year 9 Social Studies) | WW1 & National Identity |
| 9SST (second class) | Year 9 Social Studies | D2 | ~28 | Supporting AT (Year 9 Social Studies) | WW1 & National Identity — picked up on moving to full-time Social Studies |
| 10SST | Year 10 Social Studies | D12 | ~20 | Primary AT (Year 10 Social Studies) | Civil Rights: A NZ Case Study |
Class character
All three are described by the department as standard mixed-ability Fraser junior Social Studies classes with no unusual composition. The Year 9 classes run large (~28), which shapes how much individual conferencing a lesson can carry; the Year 10 class is smaller (~20) and the room dynamic is correspondingly closer. The Year 10 class has a well-established set of classroom routines that open every lesson, including assessment lessons — see Tab 8.
Change of subject, 26 August
My initial timetable (weeks 1–4) also carried a Year 11 Computer Science class (CSC1, C10) and a combined Year 12–13 Computer Science class (CSC2/3, C10) with a Digital Technologies associate teacher. From 27 August the placement was restructured to Social Studies only. The senior Computer Science teaching in weeks 1–4 remains legitimate evidence of practice and is filed as completed work, not current load (Tabs 5 and 6). Both timetables are in the paper file.
School setting, special features, organisation
In fileFraser High School, 72 Ellicott Road, Dinsdale, Hamilton 3200 · www.fraser.school.nz · Years 9–13, co-educational, Waikato. My teaching is entirely in D block (D2, D12); weeks 1–4 also used C10.
Bell schedule — period names as the school uses them
| Standard day (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri) | Wednesday (compressed) | |
|---|---|---|
| Staff briefing | 8:10 (Monday) | 8:10 |
| Tahi | 8:50 | 8:50 |
| Rua | 9:50 | 9:50 |
| Waka (whānau / advisory) | 10:50 | — |
| Interval | 11:00 | 10:45 |
| Toru | 11:35 | 11:20 |
| Whā | 12:35 | 12:20 |
| Lunch | 1:30 | 1:10 |
| Rima | 2:05 | 1:45 |
| Finish | 3:00 | 2:45 — early finish |
- Wednesday is a compressed day with an early finish; the final period is the weekly student-teacher hui, so it is not a teaching slot.
- Waka is the school's whānau / form time (Monday; advisory also appears Thursday period 4). Year-level assemblies run on Wednesdays.
- Staff briefing Monday and Wednesday at 8:10. Wednesday after school: staff working bee.
Term calendar 2026
| Term 1 | Whole school from Mon 2 Feb → Thu 2 Apr (staff-only days 27 Jan and Fri 13 Mar) |
| Term 2 | Mon 20 Apr → Fri 3 Jul |
| Term 3 — the practicum term | Mon 20 Jul → Fri 25 Sep · Fri 28 Aug: staff-only day, "Deep Learning" (whole-staff PLD) · Learning Progress Evening Tue 25 Aug (Years 9–13) · out-of-zone ballot 25 Sep |
| Term 4 | Mon 12 Oct → mid-December (final day varies by year level) |
Communications and structures
- KAMAR is the school's student-management system. Daily notices are distributed through it every morning, and a consolidated weekly notice ("Ngā Pānui") goes out each week with quick links to the Staff Manual, the Behaviour Management Plan, the duty roster, incident-report and leave forms, and the week-ahead items. Attendance is marked every period in KAMAR; pastoral records live there too.
- Deans and the senior leadership team are the escalation points for uniform and behaviour matters.
- Structures encountered: Heads of Faculty meetings, provisionally-certificated-teacher (PCT) meetings with a mentor, group tutor / dean meetings, year-level assemblies, Hei Taniwha hui.
School policies and procedures
In fileThe school ran a full induction for student teachers, including a Staff Manual of procedures. The policies and procedures below are the ones I have actually encountered or been briefed on during the placement, recorded as practised at Fraser rather than copied from the manual.
| Area | Procedure as practised |
|---|---|
| Staff Manual | The full procedures manual issued at induction; a "Q&A for Staff Manual" is linked in every weekly notice. |
| Behaviour management | The school's Behaviour Management Plan, linked in every weekly notice. In practice, the strongest version I have seen is a Year 10 class where the opening routines are run at the start of every single lesson, including test days, and the class routine documents are returned to continually rather than treated as a start-of-year artefact (Tab 8). |
| Student disclosures | Any disclosure a student makes is reported to the Hauora Centre by email, even if the teacher is unsure whether it qualifies (Week 7 staff briefing). |
| Emergencies and evacuation | Evacuate to the assembly point shown on the poster in the room you are in; check it for every room you teach in (Week 7 briefing, following a Friday fire drill). |
| Attendance | Marked every period in KAMAR. |
| Student-teacher leave | Absence reported to the associate teachers and the school coordinator, and to the University through the EDPRAC 612 leave form (applied: Week 2, 10–14 Aug, returned 17 Aug). |
| Incident reporting | Incident Report 2026 form, linked in the weekly notices. |
| Physical restraint | The school references the Ministry of Education Physical Restraint module in its compliance links. |
| Devices | Chromebooks and phones are used when the task calls for them and the teacher says so explicitly; students have a school portal for timetable, notices and results. |
| Professional learning | Fri 28 Aug was a whole-staff "Deep Learning" day on metacognition and feedback; attended. |
Teaching log
Signatures pendingThe EDPRAC 612 Teaching Experience Log, rebuilt from my own timetable so that every week's periods, classes and rooms are already in place: all eight weeks, the school's period names, the two bell schedules, the Week 2 absence, the 28 August staff-only day, and the change to Social Studies only from 27 August. Lesson topics, teacher initials and the code column are entered week by week.
Long-term planning (unit plans)
In fileOne unit overview per class taught. The two Social Studies units are the current load; the Computer Science unit is filed as completed weeks 1–4 work.
Year 9 — WW1 & National Identity
Unit page: where the war sits in the identity strand, the lesson sequence, and the assessment — students write from the perspective of one of four New Zealanders of 1914–18.
Current · Year 9 Social StudiesYear 10 — Civil Rights: A NZ Case Study
Unit page: rights, resistance and Māori resurgence, with te reo Māori revitalisation as one strand and the social inquiry sitting inside it.
Current · Year 10 Social StudiesYear 11 — Human–Computer Interaction (AS92006)
The examination-preparation sequence I taught in weeks 1–4: usability heuristics, the grade boundaries, and the feature-to-consequence chain.
Completed · weeks 1–4Lesson plans and resources
In fileLesson plans on the handbook template, given to the associate teacher before teaching. The plan used for the professional supervisor's observed lesson is marked. Each plan quotes its curriculum objectives verbatim from the live curriculum set, under both the 2007 NZC and Te Mātaiaho, listed separately rather than blended.
Year 9 — "Which war are we actually studying?"
Opening lesson of WW1 & National Identity: diagnostic sort, repairing the WW1 / WW2 blur, the 1914 map and the M.A.I.N. causes.
★ Observed by the professional supervisor · Tue 25 Aug, period 2Year 10 — "What is a right?"
Opening lesson of the civil rights unit: four questions for every claim, with tino rangatiratanga as the distinction that must not collapse.
Year 10 Social StudiesYear 10 — "Sing it in English"
The 1999 anthem as a test case for the unit's four questions, then the te reo revitalisation inquiry to hand-in standard.
Year 10 Social StudiesYear 11 — "What Excellence actually adds"
AS92006 examination preparation: the six-link chain and the same feature written three ways.
Completed · weeks 1–4Resources I made for these lessons
Year 9 — Evidence Bank (WW1 perspectives)
One A4 landscape per student: four voices, four rows, pre-seeded with sourced lines from Te Ara / DNZB and NZHistory.
HandoutYear 9 — WW1 Perspectives deck
Image-led slides for the three-lesson sequence; every archival photograph licence-verified and credited.
Teaching deckYear 10 — "Sing it in English" deck
The 1999 Hinewehi Mohi anthem moment as the case for the te reo revitalisation inquiry.
Teaching deckYear 11 — HCI classroom deck and tasks
The AS92006 classroom deck and task set from weeks 1–4, including the five-page heuristics resource made in the first 48 hours.
Completed · weeks 1–4Assessment information and record keeping
PartialWhat exists as of 2 September, stated plainly. Assessment thinking is well evidenced elsewhere in this portfolio; what this tab needs is class data and what I did in response to it, and that is only partly here yet.
| Record | Status | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Year 10 civil-rights social inquiry — hand-in record | Captured | Hand-in tally recorded 1 September and de-identified; the paper copy is in the file. Marking against the inquiry criteria follows. |
| Year 9 WW1 perspectives assessment — mark record | Upcoming | The assessment is taught across the three-lesson sequence (Tab 5); the mark record is added when the writing is in. |
| Observed formative assessment practice | Recorded | Year 10, 17 August: the term's fifth formative test, open-book, combining CUPS proofreading, a colour-coded PEEL paragraph, essential facts and a mapping skill — marked and returned by the next lesson. Full observation in Tab 8. |
| Exit cards from my own lessons | To collect | Planned for the rebuilt 1914 map lesson (see the post-observation actions in Tab 10) — this is also the data set inquiry iteration 2 depends on. |
| e-asTTle / achievement data shared by an AT | To request | None sighted yet for my classes. |
Assessment design from coursework that underpins how I mark: assessment reflection and the assessment slips.
Focused observations and analysis of data
In fileTwo charts from the handbook's observation formats (§3.2, pp. 21–23), written up from the notes I took in the room on the day. In line with §3.1, they describe rather than evaluate: what the teacher said and did, and how students responded. Teachers appear by role and no student is identifiable.
Chart 1 · General Observation
| How the teacher dealt with the following situations | |
|---|---|
| Students entering the room | The opening routines were run exactly as on a non-test day — no variation for the assessment. Students were asked to sit one seat apart; all moved without comment. |
| Starting the lesson | Routine first, then the test handed out. The test covered what had been taught so far in the year and term: a CUPS proofreading passage, an exemplar PEEL paragraph for students to identify and colour-code each part, a set of essential facts, and a mapping task. Open book. |
| Setting the task / giving instructions | Instructions were brief; the format was already familiar. Books and notes were explicitly allowed. |
| Getting attention | Silence was not requested at any point. The class was silent by established convention and stayed that way after individuals finished. |
| Transitions between activities | One transition: from the routine into the test. At the end, papers were passed forward along the rows on a single instruction. |
| Inattention / off-task behaviour | With a few minutes left the volume rose slightly among students who had finished; two students still working continued uninterrupted. No individual correction was needed. |
| Students leaving the room | None observed during the test. |
| Questioning | Not applicable during a written test; a spot-the-difference image was put on the screen for students who had finished. |
| Put-downs | None observed. |
| The last five minutes | Finishers engaged with the screen task; the students still writing were given the time. The result: the room stayed workable for the last students without anyone being told to be quiet. |
| Homework | Not set / not observed. |
| Exit | Papers forward, then dismissal. The marked tests were returned at the next lesson (18 August), where the Do Now was three questions from the unit slides. |
Chart 3 · Class management, transitions and misbehaviour
| Phase | Teacher language — what was said | Non-verbal — what the teacher did |
|---|---|---|
| Opening the lesson |
"While you are waiting, put today's date." "I want to praise all the people who came in and did the right thing — got a book and a pen, opened it, and are ready to learn." |
Learning outcome already on the board (how and why people work together to face community challenges). A student without a book was handed refill paper without discussion. The weekly quiz was the entry task. |
| Transitions | From the quiz into the topic through the five Ws and H — who, what, when, where, why, how — and the unit question: what responsibilities do individuals have to their community in times of crisis? Dates of the war stated (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918). | Quiz answers taken as a class; the slide deck carried the transition. |
| Off-task behaviour |
"Boys down the back…"followed by waiting — 8:57, 8:59, 9:00 — rather than repeating the instruction. |
At 9:00 the teacher moved to the back table and spoke to the group quietly at close range to refocus them. The quiz then started. Student response: the group settled; the class was working within the minute. |
| Ending the lesson | Not recorded — I moved to my next class at the bell. | |
Analysis — what the data says and what I am doing with it
Following Good and Brophy's warning (handbook p. 7), the point of both charts is the student response, not the teacher. In both rooms the thing doing the work was a routine the students already owned. In the Year 10 test, silence was never requested and never broke; students who finished had somewhere to put their attention; the two slowest writers got the whole period. In the Year 9 lesson, the settling of the back table took three minutes of deliberate waiting and one quiet conversation, not a raised voice, and the praise at the door named the behaviour wanted rather than the behaviour not wanted.
Three transferable findings, all of which I have since used in my own Year 9 and Year 10 lessons: (1) the opening sequence never varies, including on assessment days — it is the routine, not the content, that produces the settled room; (2) test conventions are taught over time, not demanded on the day — an open-book test rewards the students who kept their notes, which is the habit worth building anyway; (3) give the finishers something, so the last students working are protected. The fuller catalogue of routines I am carrying forward is in section 3 of the structured reflection.
One precision point from the Year 9 lesson is now in my own WW1 teaching: "the Great War" means large, not good, and saying so is the difference between a name and a misconception.
Formative observation sheets / notes by my associate teachers
OutstandingThe handbook asks associate teachers to complete the Formative Lesson Observation Sheet at least five times across the practicum, and says that feedback feeds directly into the summative report. As of 2 September, no completed sheet has been returned to me. I have supplied the form and asked both associate teachers for anything already written and for observations of specific upcoming lessons.
Evaluations and reflections
In filePost-observation record — professional supervisor visit, 25 August
| Lesson | Year 9 Social Studies, Tuesday 25 August 2026, period 2 (Rua, 9:50). WW1: basic facts into causes — the M.A.I.N. factors. Planned 55 minutes on the handbook template (plan). |
| Learning intentions | WALT 1: key facts about the M.A.I.N. factors causing "the war to end all wars". WALT 2: think critically about students' own questions about WW1. |
| What the professional supervisor identified as working | Tracking well overall. Good tone with the students; good class-management strategies. Te reo Māori embedded throughout the lesson naturalistically, not as a bolt-on. The task read as having good potential for deep learning. Good attention to detail in extension work for students who were ahead, aimed at critical thinking. Plenty of time given for questions and for thinking. |
| What I was asked to improve | Transitions. I agreed. |
| My own evaluation | The task had real potential for deep learning and we did not reach all of it: only the first task was completed properly and the closing video was rushed. The students struggled with the 1914 map, where the cognitive load sat on finding Serbia rather than on why an alliance system turns a regional dispute into a world war. Reading the plan back, its five phases are budgeted at 10 + 15 + 20 + 10 + 5 minutes — 60 minutes against a 55-minute period — which is the checkable source of the transition squeeze the supervisor named. An unfamiliar room and a technical fault added to it and remove none of the need to fix it. |
| Actions agreed / taken |
|
Goal checkpoint after the observation
My four EDPRAC 612 goals, checked against what the observation actually evidenced rather than what I prepared. Goal 1 (weave te reo Māori me ngā tikanga through everyday practice) — externally confirmed by the supervisor's comment; next step is to record the specific kupu used so the claim has detail behind it. Goal 2 (systematic evidence on engagement) — did not move on 25 August; no data set was collected from that lesson, which is why action 2 above exists. Goal 3 (plan at unit level) — sharpened: the feedback landed on transitions, which is a planning matter, and the plan's own phase timings show where it came from. Goal 4 (assessment and moderation) — still open; not evidenced by this lesson.
Structured reflection and the daily record
🪞 Practicum 2 — structured reflection
Weeks 1–4 written up from the daily record as went well · went less well · where to next, plus the catalogue of routines I am taking into my own practice. Weeks 5–8 follow as they happen.
Weekly synthesis🎯 EDPRAC 612 goals and PLD goals
The four practicum goals set in July on the official goal-setting sheet, and the longer-run professional learning goals they sit inside.
Goal recordItems, order and wording of the ten headings are from the University of Auckland Faculty of Arts and Education 2026 EDPRAC 612 GDTSE Practicum Handbook (updated July 2026), §4.1, p. 9; observation formats from §3.2 and pp. 21–23. Status pills describe what is on this page as of the date on the cover; items marked paper file only are in the hard-copy folder and are deliberately not reproduced here because they identify students or reproduce school-internal documents. This page is not indexed by search engines.